a piece of electronic equipment that has been rendered inoperable. This usually happens when trying to update the firmware or BIOS of the device, when "jail-breaking", installing new cell-phone ROMs, etc.

I tried to run some program I got off the web to turn my phone into a wireless hotspot. Now it's a brick.

notes

origin

The term comes from analog radio communications. A radio sender would ask a receiver to rate his radio signal. Two numbers were used, the first representing signal strength and the second representing signal clarity. Each were on a scale of 1 to 5. "5 by 5" then is the highest signal strength and the best quality.